1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the lining of pipes and in particular it concerns a novel distributor head for applying a hardenable fluent material, such as concrete or mortar, to the inner surface of pipes by throwing the material outward against the inner pipe surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of devices for throwing a fluent lining material against the inner wall of a pipe is well known. U.S. Pat. No. 2,168,917 to Perkins and United Kingdom Pat. No. 852,474 to Schultz describe such devices.
The Perkins patent shows a central feed conduit through which mortar is fed to a distributing head. The distributing head is in the form of a dished plate whose concave side faces and is positioned adjacent the open end of the feed conduit to receive the mortar. Applied to the concave side of the distributing plate are material-intercepting blades which are disposed substantially tangentially to the hub of the plate. The outer edges of these blades terminate short of the peripheral edge of the plate while their inner portions are provided with notches into which the discharge end of the conduit extends, whereby the inner positions of the blades are disposed in the path of the material exiting from the end of the conduit to intercept it and direct it outwardly over the plate, as the plate and blades rotate. According to the Perkins patent, the material is held to the distributing plate a sufficient time to thin and smooth out before it is discharged from the periphery of the plate onto the wall of the pipe being lined.
The Schultz patent shows a distributor head which receives cement-mortar from a supply pipe, the rear end of which is formed with a series of slots providing openings to the distributor head. The distributor head itself comprises a series of radial plates slotted at their outer edges and clamped between front and rear plates. The front plate extends forwardly as a socket in which a drive shaft is fixed. The rear plate extends over the end of the supply pipe. When the fluent cement-mortar reaches the end of the supply pipe it is forced through the slots. The drive shaft turns the front and rear plates and the radial plates over the slots 26 to intercept the cement mortar and throw it outwardly against the walls of the pipe being lined.
Both Perkins and Schultz show the spraying of a fluid coating over the applied lining. In Perkins the fluid coating is sprayed from a feed pipe onto an outwardingly flared annular wall of a cup shaped member. The cup shaped member has an inwardly turned flange around its outer edge and ports or orifices are provided in the flange for the discharge of the fluid material in this streams onto the pipe wall. In Schultz a second lining material is fed under pressure through a second supply pipe and this material is forced through slots in the pipe and is thrown outwardly and rearwardly by radial blades which revolve about the slots.
A further prior art distributor head has a rotating member having an outwardly flared inner surface and means for depositing the fluent substance onto the inner surface of the rotating member so that, as the member rotates, the fluent substance is caused, by centrifugal action, to flow along its inner surface toward its outer edge. A plurality of vanes are distributed about and mounted on the rotating member to extend axially and radially outward from its said outer edge to receive the fluent substance which flows along the inner surface of the rotating member and throw the substance outwardly against the pipe wall. Also, the inner surface of the rotating member is formed, at its outer edge, with slots leading to the spaces between the vanes and these slots are tapered with their narrower ends closest to the inner surface of the rotating member so that the fluent substance will be distributed evenly over the surfaces of the outer vanes. The depositing means which deposits the fluent substance onto the inner surface of the rotating member is formed by a supply conduit having elongated slots distributed thereabout which extend axially of the conduit and through which the fluent substance passes and a plurality of vanes which revolve about the conduit to engage the fluent substance and throw it outwardly onto the inner surface of the rotating member. The slots and vanes of this prior art device extend over substantially the same axial region as the flared inner surface of the rotating member.
The prior art device described above improves over the devices of the Schultz and Perkins patents in that it is capable of throwing lining material in a narrower and more dense stream than was possible with the earlier devices.